Treating tobacco.



UNITED STATES PATENT Patented April 18,1905.

EETCE.

JOHN L. DANIELS, JR, NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN CIGAR COMPANY, A YOORPORATION'OF NEW YORK.

TREATING TOBACCO.

. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 787,611, dated April 18, 1905.

I Application and June 17,1903. S ri l N 161. 5.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it knownthat I, JOHN L. DANIELS, J r., a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, county and State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Treating Tobacco, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the present invention is to render tobacco harmless to the user. As is well known, the injurious effects produced on* *the heart and nervous system by the use of not readily oxidized. In fact, it resists the action of all but the'strongest oxidizing agents. Ordinary oxygen, hydrogen peroxid, unless in the presence of platinum-black,periodic and perchloric acids, and many other powerful oxidizing agents produce no oxidizing effect-whatever on nicotin or its salts." Inor- V der to accomplish the oxidation, the oxygen must be nascent active oxygen,v such as is giygen off by potassium or other permanganate or such as is produced by the silent electric discharge on ordinary oxygen and commonly called ozone. I prefer; to use ozone to effeet the desired oxidation, as in that case'it is usually unnecessary toexpose the tobacco for anylength of time to water, which has a sol'- vent or extractive action on some of the good qualities of the plant which it is desirableto retain; but I do not limit myself solely to the use of ozone,,for I find that where the tobacco is very strong and contains a relatively large per cent. of nicotin it is advisable to give the leaves a preliminaryimmersion ina weak so' lution, preferably, of'potassium permanga-- nate before subjecting them to the action of Various methozone. Where-it is not desirable to oxidize all the nicotin contained in the leaves, I omit either the preliminary treatment with the permanganate or 'the secondary treatment wit ozone.

In carrying out the process bythe employment of ozone the leaves are exposed to the direct action of the gas in any convenient way, as by blowing the gas on them or by suspending the leaves in an air-tight chamber filled with ozone. To facilitate the action, I first moisten the leaves with a solvent of ozone,

such as hypophosphite of soda. The time .re-

quired for completion of the operation depends upon the per cent. of nicotin present in the leaves. Havana tobacco, which contains a comparatively small proportion of the alkaloid, can be completely denicotized by an exposure, of half an hour. Other tobaccos, containing larger amounts of nicotin,must be subjected to longer treatment.

The final resultof my treatment is nicotinic 'acid. This compound is substantiallyharmless, and its presence in smoking and chewing tobacco is not ob ect1onable.- Free nicotin,

the injurious ingredient of tobacco-smoke, is

not produced when tobacco treated by this process is smoked, as is the case with any tobacco treated with tannic acid.

My process is also of value in hastening the maturing or curing of tobacco. As the chief object there'is to eliminate the gummy and nitrogenous substancesin the green leaf by a part or all of the nicotin may be oxidized at v the same'time.

What I claim is The herein-described treatment of tobacco,

which consists in moistening' the leaves with a solution of hypophosphite of soda, then exposing them to oxygen in the form of ozone,

as set forth. y

. JOHN L. DANIELS, JR.

Witnesses: M. LAMSON DYER, S. S. DUNHAM. 

